Here’s some of what January has to offer…
Toronto Operetta Theatre is doing Imre Kalman’s The Czardas Princess over the New Year holiday. It’s st the Jane Mallett Theatre and there are shows on December 30th and January 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
‘Tis the season of family holiday shows and Messiahs. Not that I’m planning to do much of either but here are some shows that you might be interested in…
I’ve only just found out about a couple of events this week that may be of interest.
Soulpepper has a free showing of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece The Seventh Seal. It’s on Wednesday, November 12th at 7pm and it’s free. If you have seen The Comeuppance and the movie you’ll get the connection! If you haven’t seen the movie I would say it’s one of the most important post war films. It has a fantastic performance by Max von Sydow as a world weary crusader and an equally fine one by Bengt Kerot as Death. The cinematography, by Gunnar Fischer is exceptional. No gimmicks. No special effects. Just a very beautiful and moving film.
Then on Sunday November 16th at 7.30pm at Arrayspace Lindsay McIntyre is performing and producing Morton Feldman’s Three Voices in which the live singer works with two pre-recorded vocal tracks. It’s a most interesting hour long piece. I recently reviewed a recording of it by Dory Hayley for La Scena Musicale. Tickets for that are “at the door” or here.
Here’s what’s coming up next month as best I know.
Life slowly returns to some version of normal.. Here’s what I’m seeing so far for Sptember.
After the relative busyness of July; Fringe, TSM, August really does look pretty quiet. There are a few things on though:
As I pivot from the Fringe to Toronto Summer Music I thought I’d lay out a few thoughts about this year’s Toronto Fringe. Obviously this is based on my sample of eight shows out of the huge number on offer but some of my thoughts seemed to be confirmed by conversations over the course of the week.
Me with cast and crew members of Regarding Antigone
July in Toronto is really all about two festivals; the Toronto Fringe Festival and Toronto Summer Music.
The Fringe runs July 2nd to July 13th and there are more than 100 shows on 20+ stages. There’s a huge range of performance styles; drama, comedy, clowning, musicals, stand up etc. Most shows run an hour or less and the standard ticket price is $18.75 though there are plenty of discounts plus multi show passes as well as free events at the Fringe Hub which this year is at Soulpepper with events also across the street at Old Flame brewery. Quality varies a lot. Some shows are excellent; Monks last year would be a case in point, but others a re a bit meh. But that’s the point really. You can see what looks interesting to you. All the details are here.
Things slow down just a little bit in June but with both Luminato and Opera 5’s Opera festival it’s not that quiet. Here’s what’s coming down:
Here are my top picks for May.
operaramblings 